by Editor | Jun 17, 2026 | Book Chapter, Edited Volume, Urban Imaginaries and Indian Cities in Literature
Elroy Pinto
Independent Filmmaker, researcher and writer.
10.21659/9788197513022.04
Abstract
Kali Salwaar (2001) is Fareeda Mehta’s directorial debut and is based on a short story by revolutionary writer Sadat Hasan Manto. The film follows the life of a couple of migrants from the North, Sultana, a sex worker, and her partner, Khudabaksh, a pimp and dilettante with photography. Sultana navigates the streets of Bombay with the help of several stereotypical characters, including sex workers, bhai, grifters, and auto-mechanics. Similarly, their spaces are portrayed as vibrant sites of politics, power, and commerce that operate within working-class localities. In the film, structural elements of cinema- gesture, lensing, sound, music, dialogue, lighting, colour, and movement- form distinct sequences crafted to reveal an ‘inner drama’ that transcends the narrative. By centring the experiences of the migrant labourer and sex worker, the film’s form constructs the spatial relations of the city with its inhabitants into an ever-changing labyrinth. The essay begins by historically locating the role of Muharrum in the life of the working classes of Bombay. Drawing on the work on epic cinema by Alex Koutsouraki, I ask, what does infusing the everyday lives of the working class with modernist epic structures do for our understanding of urban life? Utilising neuroscience studies conducted by Vittorio Gallese & Michelle Guerra on movement in cinema and Bregt Lameris’s study on colour, I argue that Mehta tweaks these structural elements of cinema and increases the possibilities of urban spaces. Finally, I analyse the cinematic processes by which Fareeda Mehta transforms the spaces realised in Manto’s Bombay stories into the visual language of cinema.
Keywords: Epic cinema, Indian cinema, Fareeda Mehta, Sadat Hasan Manto, Kali Salwaar.
Full-Text Chapter PDF Full Text Book PDF
Urban Imaginaries and Indian Cities in Literature
Table of Contents
Front Matter
Urban Imaginaries and Indian Cities in Literature: An Introduction
Dr. Neethu P Antony and Dr. Arpana Venu
Abstract Full Text PDF
City as Micro-Narratives of Senses and Everyday Experiences: An Analytical Study of Selected Stories from People Called Kolkata
Olivia Joseph
Abstract Full Text PDF
Multilingual Metropolis: The Politics of Language and Belonging in Guwahati Through Sheelabhadra’s Fiction
Sangeeta Bhagawati
Abstract Full Text PDF
Spatial (re)orientations and Epic structures of the urban in Fareeda Mehta’s Kali Salwaar
Elroy Pinto
Abstract Full Text PDF
Between Tramline and Traffic Jam: Mapping Indian City through Satyajit Ray’s Mahanagar and Anurag Basu’s Life in a…Metro
Trisha Sengupta & Dr. Sanghamitra Baladhikari
Abstract Full Text PDF
Reimagining Kolkata: Subaltern Narratives and the Colonial Urban Dystopia in Kallol Magazine’s Literature
Nandini Gayen
Abstract Full Text PDF
Walking, Writing and Resisting the City: Spatial Tactics and Postcolonial Reimaginings in Janice Pariat’s Everything the Light Touches
Parvin Sultana
Abstract Full Text PDF
Mimesis, Montage and Mapping: A Spatial Analysis of Gangtok City Scapes in the Select Works of Satyajit Ray and Prajwal Parajuly
Dr. Sudakshina Bhattacharya, Dr. Sulagna Mohanty, and Dr. Ankusha Bandyopadhyay
Abstract Full Text PDF
by Editor | Jun 17, 2026 | Book Chapter, Edited Volume, Urban Imaginaries and Indian Cities in Literature
Sangeeta Bhagawati
Independent Researcher.
10.21659/9788197513022.03
Abstract
This chapter focuses on the work of Sheelabhadra (Rebati Mohan Dutta Choudhury, 1924-2008), whose writing gives us a critical look at the politics of language and belonging in Guwahati, Assam’s principal urban centre. Guwahati, like many other postcolonial Indian cities, is shaped by the merging of migration, language diversity and social hierarchy. The regional language literature of Sheelabhadra portrays these multilingual urban experiences. His Assamese fiction shows us how language becomes a marker of belonging or exclusion. Drawing on his background in Goalpara, a linguistically distinct region on Assam’s western borders, Sheelabhadra brings the speech of a marginalised dialect community into his representations of urban life. His short story “Apon Manuh” (2007) explores how internal migrants experience Guwahati as a city structured by linguistic hierarchy. Centred on a chance meeting between two migrants from Goalpara, the story reveals how dialect and standardised language operate as registers of identity. In this chapter, I argue that the conversation between the protagonists, where they shift from standard Assamese to Goalparia dialect, reveals two important aspects. First, it allows us to see the need for linguistic conformity in the urban sphere. Second, it makes visible an alternative form of solidarity based on shared marginal speech. Sheelabhadra’s work is valuable to understanding larger debates on how urban identities are shaped through everyday acts of language use.
Keywords: multilingualism, belonging, Assamese literature, dialect, internal migration.
Full-Text Chapter PDF Full Text Book PDF
Urban Imaginaries and Indian Cities in Literature
Table of Contents
Front Matter
Urban Imaginaries and Indian Cities in Literature: An Introduction
Dr. Neethu P Antony and Dr. Arpana Venu
Abstract Full Text PDF
City as Micro-Narratives of Senses and Everyday Experiences: An Analytical Study of Selected Stories from People Called Kolkata
Olivia Joseph
Abstract Full Text PDF
Multilingual Metropolis: The Politics of Language and Belonging in Guwahati Through Sheelabhadra’s Fiction
Sangeeta Bhagawati
Abstract Full Text PDF
Spatial (re)orientations and Epic structures of the urban in Fareeda Mehta’s Kali Salwaar
Elroy Pinto
Abstract Full Text PDF
Between Tramline and Traffic Jam: Mapping Indian City through Satyajit Ray’s Mahanagar and Anurag Basu’s Life in a…Metro
Trisha Sengupta & Dr. Sanghamitra Baladhikari
Abstract Full Text PDF
Reimagining Kolkata: Subaltern Narratives and the Colonial Urban Dystopia in Kallol Magazine’s Literature
Nandini Gayen
Abstract Full Text PDF
Walking, Writing and Resisting the City: Spatial Tactics and Postcolonial Reimaginings in Janice Pariat’s Everything the Light Touches
Parvin Sultana
Abstract Full Text PDF
Mimesis, Montage and Mapping: A Spatial Analysis of Gangtok City Scapes in the Select Works of Satyajit Ray and Prajwal Parajuly
Dr. Sudakshina Bhattacharya, Dr. Sulagna Mohanty, and Dr. Ankusha Bandyopadhyay
Abstract Full Text PDF
by Editor | Jun 17, 2026 | Book Chapter, Urban Imaginaries and Indian Cities in Literature
Olivia Joseph
Research Scholar, Department of English and Comparative Literature. Central University of Kerala, Kasargod.
10.21659/9788197513022.02
Abstract
The multilayered fabric of the urban environment brought diverse theories and perspectives into focus. One such perspective is the dynamic everyday practices of inhabitants and tourists. These practices yield micro-narratives from everyday life and are rooted in emotional attachment to the place rather than in the recording of a social issue. This chapter discusses selected stories from the People Called Kolkata collection, curated by Kamalika Bose and published in 2019. The study explores how the author engages with the city through sensory narratives and the everyday practices of its dwellers. It also examines how these sensory details influence the emotional responses of inhabitants in a specific city. The study also analyses the work through the lens of everyday urbanism by enquiring into how urban spaces are defined by daily routines such as commutes and the use of resources like water, as well as by strained infrastructure, thereby making it a study of the presence of informal urbanism within the city. It also examines the representation of adaptive practices, such as dwellings visualised in the collection. Thus, the study focuses on two main questions: how the disordered vanishing of inhabitants and vernacular architecture retells the story of a city through the senses and everyday practices, and, as a detached observer, how the curator aesthetically compiles these everyday sensory urbanisms in People Called Kolkata.
Keywords: Urbanism, Everyday Urbanism, Sensory Urbanism, Flaneur, Spatial Practice, Representations of Space and Representational Space.
Full-Text Chapter PDF Full Text Book PDF
Urban Imaginaries and Indian Cities in Literature
Table of Contents
Front Matter
Urban Imaginaries and Indian Cities in Literature: An Introduction
Dr. Neethu P Antony and Dr. Arpana Venu
Abstract Full Text PDF
City as Micro-Narratives of Senses and Everyday Experiences: An Analytical Study of Selected Stories from People Called Kolkata
Olivia Joseph
Abstract Full Text PDF
Multilingual Metropolis: The Politics of Language and Belonging in Guwahati Through Sheelabhadra’s Fiction
Sangeeta Bhagawati
Abstract Full Text PDF
Spatial (re)orientations and Epic structures of the urban in Fareeda Mehta’s Kali Salwaar
Elroy Pinto
Abstract Full Text PDF
Between Tramline and Traffic Jam: Mapping Indian City through Satyajit Ray’s Mahanagar and Anurag Basu’s Life in a…Metro
Trisha Sengupta & Dr. Sanghamitra Baladhikari
Abstract Full Text PDF
Reimagining Kolkata: Subaltern Narratives and the Colonial Urban Dystopia in Kallol Magazine’s Literature
Nandini Gayen
Abstract Full Text PDF
Walking, Writing and Resisting the City: Spatial Tactics and Postcolonial Reimaginings in Janice Pariat’s Everything the Light Touches
Parvin Sultana
Abstract Full Text PDF
Mimesis, Montage and Mapping: A Spatial Analysis of Gangtok City Scapes in the Select Works of Satyajit Ray and Prajwal Parajuly
Dr. Sudakshina Bhattacharya, Dr. Sulagna Mohanty, and Dr. Ankusha Bandyopadhyay
Abstract Full Text PDF
by Editor | Jun 16, 2026 | Book Chapter, Edited Volume
Dr. Neethu P Antony¹ & Dr. Arpana Venu²
¹,² Assistant Professor in English, School of Social Sciences and Humanities (VISH), VIT-AP University, Amaravati, Andhra Pradesh, India.
10.21659/9788197513022.01
Abstract
Urban Imaginaries and Indian Cities in Literature examines the multiple modes of representation, contestation and re-imagination of Indian cities in literary texts and cultural discourses. The volume explores the role of urban spaces not only as backdrops, but as active forces in the construction of human life and social relations. It attempts to understand how literature depicts the tensions between tradition and modernity, memory and progress, inclusion and exclusion and local and global forces that characterise contemporary urban life. The chapters in this collection address a broad spectrum of themes such as urban marginalisation, migration, gendered experiences, environmental issues, spatial politics, memory, and imagined futures. Drawing on several theoretical and methodological dimensions, the contributors illuminate the complexities and challenges of urban life in India. This volume constitutes eight chapters that do not provide a comprehensive study of major metropolitan Indian cities as often seen in the existing corpus of urban studies. The present chapter makes the case that it is rather an attempt to bring unique representations of known and unknown urban spaces in India to unravel the way the various urban spaces are imagined, experienced, contested, represented and negotiated across different historical, social, and cultural contexts in India. The recurrence of certain cities like Kolkata in the volume does not offer a singular narrative of its urban space. Instead, it focuses on the broader dimensions of the same city with its multiple urban experiences and posits ‘urbanity’ as an evolving and dynamic process.
Full-Text Chapter PDF Full Text Book PDF
Urban Imaginaries and Indian Cities in Literature
Table of Contents
Front Matter
Urban Imaginaries and Indian Cities in Literature: An Introduction
Dr. Neethu P Antony and Dr. Arpana Venu
Abstract Full Text PDF
City as Micro-Narratives of Senses and Everyday Experiences: An Analytical Study of Selected Stories from People Called Kolkata
Olivia Joseph
Abstract Full Text PDF
Multilingual Metropolis: The Politics of Language and Belonging in Guwahati Through Sheelabhadra’s Fiction
Sangeeta Bhagawati
Abstract Full Text PDF
Spatial (re)orientations and Epic structures of the urban in Fareeda Mehta’s Kali Salwaar
Elroy Pinto
Abstract Full Text PDF
Between Tramline and Traffic Jam: Mapping Indian City through Satyajit Ray’s Mahanagar and Anurag Basu’s Life in a…Metro
Trisha Sengupta & Dr. Sanghamitra Baladhikari
Abstract Full Text PDF
Reimagining Kolkata: Subaltern Narratives and the Colonial Urban Dystopia in Kallol Magazine’s Literature
Nandini Gayen
Abstract Full Text PDF
Walking, Writing and Resisting the City: Spatial Tactics and Postcolonial Reimaginings in Janice Pariat’s Everything the Light Touches
Parvin Sultana
Abstract Full Text PDF
Mimesis, Montage and Mapping: A Spatial Analysis of Gangtok City Scapes in the Select Works of Satyajit Ray and Prajwal Parajuly
Dr. Sudakshina Bhattacharya, Dr. Sulagna Mohanty, and Dr. Ankusha Bandyopadhyay
Abstract Full Text PDF
